Say, does anyone remember what Barack Obama said after the June 27 debate exposed Joe Biden's cognitive incapacity? Let's just say that he didn't seem terribly concerned about age playing a role in governance or policy choices. Instead, Obama tried to pass Biden's performance as just one "bad debate night," but insisted that voters keep their faith in the 81-year-old candidate:

Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 28, 2024

Today, however, having old people make your choices is suddenly ... problematic. Granted, this is in a slightly different context, but this comes out today as part of an weeks-old attempt by Team Kamala at making Donald Trump's age a campaign issue. Don't let the oldsters make your choices, Obama declares as he urges younger Americans to vote:

Here's my message to young people: you wouldn't let a bunch of old people decide what music you're going to listen to or what clothes you're going to wear – so don't let them decide your future.

Make a plan to vote today: https://t.co/V3uLF7XRqt pic.twitter.com/VR5T97x8K1

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 23, 2024

The Left began hyping the Trump-is-too-old narrative a little more as the polls started to fall, but it actually started the day after Joe Biden withdrew from the race. On July 22, The Atlantic kicked it off with their oh-so-cogent analysis, "Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged." On the very same day, The Atlantic also ran another story headlined "Trump Is Still Very Old," just in case anyone missed their first argument. The Washington Post fell in line at the same time by reporting, "Trump's age and health now a focus after Biden's exit from the race," also on July 22. 

A week ago, with Harris' polling turning sour, the Journolisting on age began all over again. "Trump's age finally catches up with him," the Washington Post reported (again). "Trump Is Too Old and Tired to Campaign," the New Republic declared. "Trump Too 'Exhausted' to Do Interviews With Unfriendly Outlets," Intelligencer told its readers the next day. That was the same day, of course, that Trump did a shift at McDonalds in Pennsylvania before speaking for over an hour at a rally, while Kamala Harris spoke for less than seven minutes at her only campaign event in Detroit.

And this week, Harris took two days off the campaign trail to "prepare" for ... an NBC News interview and a CNN townhall on successive nights. No campaign events took place for Harris and Walz, which may have left them at their more coherent. Who's tired in this election? Who needs their rest and preparation for softball interviews?

Now, in fairness, the message this week is that TRUMP IS LITERALLY HITLER. As well as Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Nero, and possibly Draco on a bad day. (That's Draco of Athens, not Draco Malfoy, although maybe Trump is an evil wizard too.) For those who can't recall the villains of history by name, the Harris campaign offers its surrogates the use of just a generic "fascist" label. Obama must have missed a campaign message memo this week to be focusing on age rather than EEEEEEEEEEVIL.

Of course, this was also Obama this week:

Barack Obama: "I don't understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter." pic.twitter.com/OWj3uicQ1o

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 22, 2024

It's a mystery, all right. 

All of these attacks are just so -- what's the right word for it? -- exhausted. The media and Democrats have made this argument for eight years, and it's not convincing anyone but the already convinced.  To everyone else, it has become a threadbare distraction from the failures of the Democrats. Politico's Jonathan Miller expressed his own frustration over the attempts by Harris and Democrats to run not for president of the US but for executive director of The Lincoln Project:

Harris said nothing specific about how she’d govern, mentioned no looming issue on which she’d work with Republicans and offered no reassurances about leading the country from the political center.

And, of course, there was no critique of her own party or even an expression of sympathy or understanding about why voting for a liberal could be difficult for a longtime conservative. There wasn’t even a reference to her previous commitments to include a Republican in the Cabinet or create a bipartisan council of advisers.

And this was in response to the opening question from a pre-selected moderator who is supporting her campaign! ...

The event was explicitly aimed at those moderates and onetime Republicans who remain up for grabs, and may decide the election, but the rhetoric seemed better suited for those in the audience wearing “The Lincoln Project” and “,LA” t-shirts.

That's because Harris can't make a compelling case for herself as president, or won't, which amounts to the same thing. She's running the same "Trump is disqualified" argument that Biden couldn't sell, only with even less substance as she runs away from the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration. In desperation, Democrats are treating voters like idiots treat blind people -- by yelling at them to get their message across when they think the message isn't working. Obama is trying to fill the gap but offers nothing of substance either, other than the same old attack lines that has voters bailing on this absurd status quo.